Contents

Carly Simon was born in New York City. Her father was Richard L. Simon (co-founder of Simon & Schuster),[16] a classical pianist who often played Chopin and Beethoven at home. Her mother was Andrea Heinemann Simon (née Heinemann),[17] a civil rights activist and singer. Her father was from a GermanJewish family, while her maternal grandfather Friedrich was of German descent. Carly's maternal grandmother, Ofelia Oliete known as "Chibie", was a Catholic from Cuba, and was of Pardo heritage, a freed-slave descendant. A 2017 episode of PBS show Finding Your Roots tested Simon's DNA, which included 10% African and 2% Native American, likely via her maternal grandmother.[18]

Her grandmother was sent to England and raised by nuns until the age of sixteen.[19][20]

In 2015, Simon stated that when she was seven years old, a family friend in his teens did sexual things to her.[21] She stated, "It was heinous", adding, "It changed my view about sex for a long time."[21]

Simon began stuttering severely when she was eight years old. A psychiatrist tried unsuccessfully to cure her stuttering. Instead, Simon turned to singing and songwriting. "I felt so strangulated talking that I did the natural thing, which is to write songs, because I could sing without stammering, as all stammerers can."[22]

In 1972–73 Simon scored the biggest success of her career with "You're So Vain". It hit No. 1 on the U.S. Pop and Adult Contemporary charts, and sold over a million copies in the United States alone. It was one of the decade's biggest hits and propelled Simon's breakthrough album No Secrets to No. 1 on the U.S. album charts, where it stayed for five consecutive weeks. The album achieved Gold status that year, but by the album's 25th anniversary in 1997, the album had been certified Platinum.[32] "You're So Vain" received Grammy Awardnominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.[33][34] Additionally, in 2008, it was listed at No. 72 on the Billboard Hot 100's list of the top 100 songs from the chart's first 50 years, August 1958 through July 2008. On August 23, 2014, the U.K. Official Charts Company crowned it the ultimate song of the 1970s.[35]

The subject of the "You're So Vain" song itself became one of the biggest mysteries in popular music, with the famous lyric "You're so vain/I bet you think this song is about you." For more than 40 years, Simon has not publicly revealed the name of the subject.[36] She hinted that it could be a composite of several people, with most press speculation considering Mick Jagger, who sings backup vocals on the recording,[37] and Warren Beatty. Simon hinted the identity to a variety of talk shows and publications over the years and, on August 5, 2003, auctioned off the information to the winner of a charity function for US$50,000, with the condition that the winner, television executive Dick Ebersol, not reveal it.[38] Finally, in November 2015, Simon, promoting her about-to-be-published memoir, said, "I have confirmed that the second verse is Warren" and added that while "Warren thinks the whole thing is about him," he is the subject only of that verse, with the remainder of the song referring to two other, still unnamed men.[39]

Later in 1973, the follow-up single, "The Right Thing to Do", was another sizable hit, reaching No. 4 Adult Contemporary and No. 17 Pop. That same year Simon performed on Lee Clayton's album Lee Clayton and co-sang on the song "New York Suite 409" and on Livingston Taylor's album Over the Rainbow and sang with both Livingston and his famous brother, James Taylor (who was, by then, her husband) on the songs "Loving Be My New Horizon" and "Pretty Woman".

In 1974, Simon followed the smash No Secrets album with Hotcakes, which became an instant hit, reaching No. 3 on Billboard's Album Chart and was certified Gold. Hotcakes included two top ten singles, "Mockingbird", a duet with James Taylor that peaked at No. 5 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, and "Haven't Got Time for the Pain", which hit No. 2 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.[40] The same year, Simon provided vocals on Tom Rush's album Ladies Love Outlaws and co-sang with Rush on "No Regrets" and as backup on "Claim on Me". In 1975, Elektra released her first greatest-hits album, The Best of Carly Simon, which became Simon's all-time best selling disc and eventually reached Triple-Platinum status in the United States.[32]

Simon's record sales declined considerably with 1975's Playing Possum and 1976's Another Passenger. Playing Possum was a Top Ten album, and garnered a successful Top 40 single "Attitude Dancing" and two other charting singles,[41] but its racy album cover, which depicts Simon wearing only a black negligee and knee-high black boots, generated controversy.[42] In 1991, Rolling Stone ranked it No. 20 on their list of the 100 greatest album covers.[43]Another Passenger produced only one charting single on the Pop singles chart, "It Keeps You Runnin'", with the Doobie Brothers, which peaked just outside the Top 40, at No. 46,[44] and the second single, "Half A Chance", only charted on the Adult Contemporary chart. Despite the lukewarm commercial reception, the album was, and remains, one of Simon's best reviewed works, with Rolling Stone calling it "Carly Simon's best record".[45] The album became a favorite among many of Simon's fans.[46] 1976 also saw Simon contributing backup vocals on the song "Peter" on Peter Ivers's album Peter Ivers. She also made her only appearance on Saturday Night Live. It was a pre-taped performance—a rare occurrence on that show—because Simon suffered terrible bouts of stage fright. In the appearance, she sang two songs: "Half A Chance" and her signature song, "You're So Vain".[47]

Simon's career took another upward swing in 1978 with the hit album Boys in the Trees. The album produced two Top 40 singles; the jazzy and sensual "You Belong to Me", which hit the Top 10 on both the Pop and Adult Contemporary charts, and Devoted to You, a duet with James Taylor. Boys in the Trees was a major success, and returned Simon to Platinum album status in the U.S. "You Belong to Me" later earned Simon yet another Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. She was featured on the front covers of People and Rolling Stone magazines that spring. Also in 1978, Simon and Taylor sang backing vocals on two songs for Taylor's sister Kate's album Kate Taylor: "Happy Birthday Sweet Darling" and "Jason & Ida". They sang backup on three songs on John Hall's debut solo album John Hall, "The Fault", "Good Enough" and "Voyagers". They also sing backup on one song, "Power", from Hall's next album, also titled Power (1979).

In 1979, Simon released her last album for Elektra, entitled Spy. The albums sales were a disappointment, peaking at only No. 45 on the Pop albums chart, although a harder-edged single from the album, "Vengeance", became a modest hit and received airplay on U.S. album rock stations, and peaked at No. 48 on the Pop singles chart.[52] "Vengeance" earned Simon a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female in early 1980—the first year to feature the new category.[53] The album also features a track entitled "Never Been Gone", which became a fan favorite, as well as one of her personal favorites.[54] In 2009, she released an album entitled after the track.[55]

From 1972 to 1979, Simon sang backup vocals on the following James Taylor songs and albums (not counting compilations): "One Man Parade" from 1972's One Man Dog, "Rock 'n' Roll Is Music Now", "Let It All Fall Down", "Me and My Guitar", "Daddy's Baby" and "Ain't No Song" from 1974's Walking Man, "How Sweet It Is" from 1975's Gorilla, "Shower the People", "A Junkie's Lament", "Slow Burning Love" and "Family Man" from 1976's In the Pocket, and "B.S.U.R." from 1979's Flag. She also co-wrote with Taylor the song "Terra Nova" on his 1977 album JT.[56]

In 1980, Simon signed with Elektra's sibling label Warner Bros. Records and released her ninth studio album, Come Upstairs. During a show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to promote the album, Simon collapsed onstage of exhaustion.[57] She subsequently performed considerably less throughout the 1980s. From that album, Simon scored another million-selling U.S. Gold single with the hit, "Jesse", which peaked at No. 11 and remained on the charts for nearly six months.[52] After the major chart success of "Jesse", Simon's singles became generally less successful in the mid 1980s, although most of them did well on Adult Contemporary radio formats. Simon also contributed the song "Be With Me" to the 1980 album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record,[58] which was produced by her sister Lucy and Lucy's husband, David Levine. Simon can also be heard on the song "In Harmony", along with other members of the Simon/Taylor families. Carly and Lucy contributed a "Simon Sisters" song—which was called "Maryanne"—to the 1982 follow-up album In Harmony 2,[59] which was also produced by Lucy and her husband. Both albums won Grammy Awards for Best Album for Children.[60][61]

1980s publicity photo.

Torch (1981) was an album of melancholy jazz standards, but suffered from disappointing sales, peaking at No. 50 on the charts. The album was well received critically,[62][63] and featured one original song by Simon, "From The Heart",[64] as well as a cover of Stephen Sondheim's "Not a Day Goes By" from his musical Merrily We Roll Along. Also in 1981, Carly Simon was the second female solo artist to be featured on MTV's first day of the air in her video for "Vengeance" (Pat Benatar was the first female solo artist to appear on MTV, and Juice Newton was the third).

In 1982, she sang the Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards-produced single "Why", which was the soundtrack to the film Soup for One. It was a top-ten hit in the U.K. and successful throughout Europe.[65] Although "Why" stalled at No. 74 in the U.S., the song became a mellow classic in the aftermath of its being picked up to be covered and sampled by different artists from around 1989 onwards. She had another U.K. success with the single "Kissing with Confidence", a song from the 1983 album Dancing For Mental Health by Will Powers (a pseudonym for photographer Lynn Goldsmith). Simon was the uncredited singer of the song co-written and mixed by Todd Rundgren.[66]

In 1983, she made her last album for Warner, Hello Big Man, but this also suffered from disappointing sales; it did, however, receive positive critical recognition.[67][68] The lead single from the album, "You Know What to Do", peaked at No. 83 on the Pop singles chart,[52] and Simon filmed a music video for it at her home on Martha's Vineyard, MA.[69] That same year, Simon performed on two albums, The Perfect Stranger by Jesse Colin Young (singing on the track "Fight For It" with Young) and Wonderland by Nils Lofgren (singing on the track "Lonesome Ranger" with Lofgren). By this time, her contract with Warner Bros. had ended. In 1985, she signed with Epic Records and made one album for them, Spoiled Girl. The album yielded two singles, "Tired of Being Blonde" and "My New Boyfriend", with only the former charting. The album was commercially unsuccessful and her contract with Epic was cancelled.

In 1986, Simon signed with Arista Records and soon rebounded from her career slump. Her first album for Arista, Coming Around Again (1987), gave Simon another international hit with the title track (which was featured in the film Heartburn), returning her to the Billboard Pop Top 20 and the U.K. Top 10 (It also garnered her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance).

The Coming Around Again album also featured the Top 10 Adult Contemporary hits "Give Me All Night", "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of", "All I Want Is You" (which featured Roberta Flack on backing vocals), and a cover of "As Time Goes By" (featuring Stevie Wonder on harmonica).[70] The album itself was her first Gold release in nine years, and went Platinum in 1988. In October 2017, Hot Shot Records released a 2 disc 30th Anniversary deluxe edition of the album.[71] These and older songs were featured in a picturesque HBO concert special entitled Live from Martha's Vineyard, where Simon and her band performed live on a pier. Most of these songs were compiled for her 1988 album, Greatest Hits Live. The album continued her mounting comeback, quickly going Gold, and was later certified Platinum by the RIAA in 1996. From Live a recording of Simon's evergreen "You're So Vain" was released as a single in the UK.

In 1990, Simon released two albums: her second standards album, My Romance, and an album of original material Have You Seen Me Lately featuring a title track that was supposed to have been the main theme for Postcards from the Edge; the entire title sequence – including the song – was deleted by producers although a great deal of Simon's underscore compositions and thematic interludes remain in the film, eventually earning her a BAFTA nomination for Best Film Score.[74] In addition to the title track, the album also featured a major (No. 4) Adult Contemporary chart hit with "Better Not Tell Her"—Simon's biggest hit of the 1990s.

Her second children's book, The Boy of the Bells was also published in 1990. In 1991, Simon wrote her third children's book, The Fisherman's Song, which was based on the song of the same name from her 1990 album Have You Seen Me Lately. The same year, she performed a duet with Plácido Domingo on the song "The Last Night of the World" (from the Miss Saigon musical) on Domingo's album The Broadway I Love.

In 1993, Simon was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Association and the Kennedy Center to record a contemporary opera that would appeal to younger people. The result was Romulus Hunt (named after its 12-year-old protagonist), released in November of that year.[75] In December 2014, the Nashville Opera Association premiered a new performance edition of the opera.[75][76] She also published her fourth children's book, The Nighttime Chauffeur. Simon also contributed to Andreas Vollenweider's album Eolian Minstrel, she co-wrote the song "Private Fires" with Vollenweider and was featured vocalist on the song.[77]

In April 1995, Simon surprised thousands of commuters at New York's Grand Central Terminal with an unannounced performance which was filmed for a Lifetime Television Special, entitled Live at Grand Central. It was also released on home video in December of that year. Also in 1995, she performed on an American concert tour in conjunction with Hall & Oates. On August 30, 1995, Simon made a rare joint appearance with her ex-husband, James Taylor, for a concert on Martha's Vineyard. Dubbed "Livestock '95", it was a benefit for the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society, with over 10,000 people in attendance.[80]

Simon performed a duet with Mindy Jostyn on the song "Time, Be on My Side",[81] which featured on Jostyn's 1995 album Five Miles From Hope about her recent battle with colon cancer. Ten years later, Jostyn died from the disease at the age of 43.[82] 1995 also saw the release of Simon's Clouds in My Coffee, a 3 disc boxed set of highlights from her 30-year career from 1965 to 1995.[83]

Simon continued to write and record music for films and wrote the theme songs to several more movies, including "Two Little Sisters" from 1996's Marvin's Room and "In Two Straight Lines" from 1998's Madeline. 1997 saw the release of Simon's third standards album, Film Noir, which was recorded in collaboration with Jimmy Webb and for which she was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance. John Travolta dueted with Simon on the track Two Sleepy People and film director Martin Scorsese wrote the booklets liner notes.[84] She also released her fifth children's book, "Midnight Farm". Simon was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, and underwent surgery that year, as well as chemotherapy.[85] In 1999 The Very Best of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It Better, a UK-only greatest hits album, was released. Also that year, Simon worked again with the Swiss musician Andreas Vollenweider, and was the featured vocalist for the song "Your Silver Key" on Vollenweider's album Cosmopoly.

During the 1990s, the American press reported an incident between Simon and the Pretenders' vocalist Chrissie Hynde, at a Joni Mitchell concert at New York's Fez Club. Some reports stated that a drunk and disorderly Hynde grabbed Simon around the neck and punched her, although Simon attempted to put these rumors to rest on her official website in 2002. Numerous witnesses, however, claim that Simon was, indeed, assaulted by Hynde.[86]

On May 16, 2000, Simon released the album The Bedroom Tapes, largely written and recorded at home in her bedroom while she was recuperating from her health problems of the previous couple of years. The Bedroom Tapes was Simon's first album of original songs in almost six years; despite this, it did not sell well. The album was widely acclaimed by critics, with AllMusic writing "She is as a raw as she was on 1975's Playing Possum and just as sweet as 1987's Coming Around Again, but Simon is fresh. Although in her mid-fifties, she is still a charmer."[87]Billboard called the album "A feast for fans of intelligent, richly crafted pop music"[88] and People wrote that the album "unfolds like a one-woman show," calling it a "Boffo performance."[89] One of the album's tracks, "Our Affair", was remixed and featured in the Gwyneth Paltrow/Ben Affleck film Bounce.

In 2002, Simon recorded a Christmas album, Christmas Is Almost Here, for Rhino Records, while she was in Los Angeles to lend support to her son Ben Taylor and his band.[91] That same year, Simon personally chose all of the songs for a new two-disc anthology album, simply titled Anthology, also for Rhino Records. 2003 saw a re-release of her 2002 Christmas album with two extra tracks and now called Christmas Is Almost Here Again on Rhino Records. The two extra tracks, "White Christmas" (with Burt Bacharach) and "Forgive", were also released as a single.[92] She also performed several concerts during the 2004 holiday season at Harlem's Apollo Theater, along with BeBe Winans, son Ben and daughter Sally, Rob Thomas, Livingston Taylor, Mindy Jostyn and Kate Taylor, along with other members of the Taylor and Simon family.

In 2005, she released her fourth album of standards, titled Moonlight Serenade. A surprise hit, it reached No. 7 on the Billboard Album charts, her highest-charting album since Boys in the Trees, and she was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. To promote Moonlight Serenade, Simon performed two concerts on board the RMS Queen Mary 2 which were recorded and released on DVD in 2005 as A Moonlight Serenade on the Queen Mary 2. Accompanied by her children, Sally and Ben, Simon embarked on a concert tour across the United States—her first tour in 10 years, entitled The Serenade Tour.[93] She also sang a duet, "Angel of the Darkest Night", with Mindy Jostyn on Jostyn's 2005 album Coming Home. The album was released several months after Jostyn's death on March 10, 2005. One of Simon's closest friends, Jostyn was married to Jacob Brackman, Simon's long-time friend and musical collaborator. In 2005, Simon became involved in the legal defense of musician and family friend John Forté with his struggle against a federal incarceration.[94]

Simon again teamed up with the Swiss musician Andreas Vollenweider for his 2006 holiday album, Midnight Clear. She performed vocals on the tracks "Midnight Clear", "Suspended Note", "Hymn to the Secret Heart" and "Forgive" (which was a song Simon wrote for her own 2003 holiday album Christmas Is Almost Here Again). Also in 2006, Simon performed with Livingston Taylor on his album There You Are Again, singing on the opening track "Best of Friends", which became a Top 40 Adult Contemporary hit.[95]

In 2007, Simon released her fifth album of covers, a collection of "soothing songs and lullabies"[96] called Into White for Columbia Records. The collection featured covers of songs by Cat Stevens, the title track, recordings by Judy Garland, the Beatles and the Everly Brothers, as well as two new original songs "Quiet Evening" and "I'll Just Remember You", and a re-recording of Simon's own "Love of My Life". It also featured vocal collaborations with her musician children, Ben and Sally. The album continued Simon's recently rejuvenated high chart profile and became Billboard′s Hot Shot Debut, entering the chart at No. 13.

In March 2008, it was announced that Simon had signed to the Starbucks label, Hear Music. She released a new album entitled This Kind of Love with them in the spring of 2008. The album was her first collection of original songs since 2000's The Bedroom Tapes.[97] However, in October 2009, it was reported that Simon was suing Starbucks, saying they did not adequately promote the album—even though it made the US Top 20 (No. 15) and sold nearly 150,000 copies. Simon's lawsuit stated that Starbucks publicly announced it was backing out of participation in Hear Music just days before the album came out—a decision that she claimed doomed the record before it was even released.[98]

On June 19, 2008, Simon and her son Ben performed "You're So Vain" together on The Howard Stern Show on Sirius Satellite radio.[99]

On March 2, 2010, the BBC broadcast Radio Two: An Evening With Carly Simon where Simon performed live for the first time in the UK with her son Ben to a small audience of approximately 100 people. This coincided with the UK release of the Never Been Gone album, which was released for the Mother's Day season and peaked at No. 45 (Simon's first studio album to reach the UK Top 100 since 1987's Coming Around Again). Simon also appeared on various UK television shows to promote the album, including The One Show and BBC Breakfast.

It's been recently confirmed by Simon during a book signing that Carly and her son Ben Taylor are working to release EDM remixes of her signature songs. She also said she wants to record an album with her two children.[104]

In June 2004, Simon said that she no longer speaks to her ex-husband, James Taylor. "I would say our relationship is non-existent. It's not the way I want it."[116] On October 4, 2007, Simon became a grandmother when her daughter, Sally, gave birth to a son, Bodhi Taylor Bragonier.[117]

Prior to her marriage to Taylor, Simon was briefly engaged to William Donaldson in the 1960s (who jilted fiancée Sarah Miles for her).[118] Donaldson described her as "the answer to any sane man's prayers; funny, quick, erotic, extravagantly talented."[119] She also was engaged to musician Russ Kunkel, from 1985 to 1986.[120]

Simon married James Hart, a writer, poet and businessman, on December 23, 1987. The couple divorced in 2007.[121][122]

Simon underwent a mastectomy, chemotherapy and reconstructive surgery for breast cancer during 1997 and 1998. There had been a lump in her breast for several years before then, but her doctors had advised her against surgery. Simon later recounted: "Then one doctor said, 'You know what, I'd rather see it in a jar than in your breast.'" She also said that she felt "a little angry with myself" over the fact that she did not insist on taking it out sooner.[123] Simon's surgery came at the same time as the death of her longtime friend Linda McCartney, who had also struggled with breast cancer. Simon described McCartney's death as having emotionally "crushed" her.[124]

In an interview published on May 1, 2008, with the Bay Area Reporter, an LGBT news service, Simon was asked about the possibility of a performance in the True Colors Tour. She responded, "The part that I could be involved in is the gay and lesbian part. The part that would be hard for me is to commit to a tour, because I'm not very comfortable being onstage. But the part that would be easiest for me would be singing on behalf of all of us. I don't consider myself to be not gay... I've enlarged all of my possibilities. I have a lot of extremely personal stories to tell about that, but we won't go into that right now. Let's just say that it just depends upon who I'm with."[125]

Simon has been close friends with James Taylor's younger brother Livingston Taylor for over forty years. Livingston said, "I love Carly and Carly loves me. She's a ferocious advocate and supporter of my music." They have worked as a musical duo for some songs such as "Best of Friends", released in Livingston's 2006 album There You Are Again, and others earlier in their careers.[126]

In May 2010, Simon revealed she had been one of the several celebrities who fell victim to financial advisor Kenneth I. Starr, whose Ponzi scheme lured her into "investing" millions of dollars with him, which she lost.[127][128]

In 2008, Simon was reported dating Dr. Richard Koehler,[129] a surgeon specializing in minimally invasive laparoscopy.[130] Koehler, who is ten years younger than Simon, was said to have dated her as early as 2006.[131] In 2015 the two were reported living together in Martha's Vineyard.[132][133]

Taylor Swift said of Simon "She has always been known for her songwriting and her honesty. She's known as an emotional person but a strong person. I really really look up to that. I admire her. I think she's always been beautiful and natural and seems to do it all effortlessly. There's nothing more attractive than someone who seems to live effortlessly."[165]Carly Rae Jepsen was also influenced by Simon, stating "In truth I think I’m inspired by her for many reasons," she explained. "I think her music is amazing. I love the way she writes, which is very — almost to the point. There’s not a lot of — I want to say there’s not a lot of metaphor to it. I think it’s really relatable and honest. And I love her fashion sense."[166]

Tori Amos cited Simon as an influence, and often covers "Boys in the Trees" in concert. "I used to listen to this song over and over, wishing I’d wrote it," Amos once said of the track.[167] At the 2012 ASCAP awards, where Simon received the Founders Award, Natalie Maines stated "I grew up listening to Carly Simon, she was a huge influence on me." Maines then performed "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be", which she said was one of her favorite Carly Simon songs."[168]